Literature

Recently on social media, I saw this screenwriters roundtable where one of the guests claimed that screenwriting is a “bastardized” form of writing. In context, I believe he meant that storytelling in that form on paper is useless in the end because films were not meant to be read. After all, we don’t see people going to the theater to read scripts, do we? I will attempt to expand on this idea with my own thoughts.

The oral tradition of myth-telling was past on from generation to generation before anything was ever written down thousands of years ago. As we look at scripts and stories, we see a very similar theme. They highlight the biggest most dramatic moments of the character(s) that push them to their limits and changes them, for good or worse. Whether this was because it was easier to remember these moments or those were and are what our souls crave, doesn’t really matter here. What does matter is that those are the key elements of stories we use today.

The archetypes and plots we relate to the most are spun together in a creation of sorts when we make a screenplay. How does this relate at all to the claim screenwriting is a bastard though? Well, we see films and we imagine scripts. The script is a blueprint for that imagery but it does not provide the necessary details needed as some books do for books have the luxury to explain away everything, generally speaking. In a film’s case, imagination is left to the director and creative heads. Let me explain further, a script is a tool in the craft of filmmaking, it is not the final product. Therefore, when we write screenplays, we are writing down what will eventually manifest in real life — in the actors, the camera, the lighting, etc. In that manifestation, the script loses its enchantment. The story is transferred then back to the oral tradition through the people making the film. The script was only a kicking off point that has now been subject to change and manipulation as the imagination of others take charge. That is very different from a novel. A novel is a guide through a created world, a screenplay is a template to one.

Share this:

Like this:

Some of you may remember from my last post, writing is the most important thing to be doing if you consider yourself a writer. As easy as it sounds, it’s always harder in practice! This is number one, two and three until you master it! Set small goals for yourself. Grow them over time and eventually old goals become habit. Figure out what helps you write and just go ham. Don’t worry about structure, grammar or the future. If you have writer’s block, write a journal entry of your life or even a poem. This is the part where you can try out different styles and mediums to expand your knowledge over time. Just write.

Read. Watch. Feel.

Read and watch stories! This seems like traditional advice, “reading more will help you improve your stories,” well duh! What I am saying is, read and watch what you love. What does your heart draw you toward? Why is that so? Figure out why you are drawn to it so much and how it resonates with you personally. Which characters stand out to you and what part of their story do you relate to or like the most. Why? Remember, quality is better than quantity. Doing this will help grow your storytelling ability more than reading 5 books in one week would. People forget most of what they read within just a few days. Always be sensitive to what moves you inside the context of a story and ask why. This step should consist of a lot of questions that you ask yourself to figure out the types of story that lure you. Personally, mythology is the best thing to study when starting out. Myths are the very foundation of storytelling that pulls on the heartstrings of the masses for a reason. Oral traditions was the lifeblood of old civilizations.

Study People.

This step I am most grateful to have understood through film directing. It is different from text based storytelling because it involves paying close attention to the nuances of the human existence and translating it to screen. A moving painting, if you will. What will they do next physically in lieu of their character development? How do we get characters to make these explosive choices and also isolate them in their darkest nightmares or vice versa? We study how we as humans act and think. Once we start to get the smallest fractioned grasp on the complexity of the human mind, we can then manipulate elements in our story through our characters’ choices, perspective, and flaws to get desired results. Study the people around you, your family, your friends. How do they react to things? How did they grow up? Get to know them and build a genuine bond. What makes them tick? Expanding your circles and paying attention to those close to you will of help elevate your storytelling to new levels.

Share this:

Like this:

Before I begin, I would like to state that this will not be a piece about how to improve your writing craft. That is for the future. This is simply about the act of writing. The act of putting your pen to paper or as most people today, fingers to keyboard or phone. Not much information will be “new” but it will be relevant and dare I say, a useful reminder.
During my last year of school, Shannon Flynn, a producer/writer mainly known for her work with Disney, gave a lecture on the industry. She presented an idea I would never forget—in any creative field, 80% of the people that begin the craft will fail, or even worse, quit.
How could this possibly be true?
The answer lies in any liberal arts class. Some would say that you are looking at a room full of future filmmakers, cultural icons, and artists; others say you won’t remember who any of them are in thirty years time. I know this first hand because I’ve seen it with a majority of my peers. In only a few years, they’ve given up.
Where to Start – Consistency
This brings to question, why? Well, would someone who claims to be truly dedicated to their craft spend so much time letting life, whatever that is, get in the way? No, they integrate their passions into their life because they couldn’t be satisfied otherwise.
Consistently writing thoughts and stories to tangible form is a great feat. Many people seem to think they are cut out for it, as with most arts, only to find out they were misled later on. If you believe you are called to write, test yourself daily. If you are a writer or claim to be, then we should be writing daily, no excuses. As manageable as that sounds, most young ”writers” fail. Let’s make sure we don’t fall into this trap.
Writing daily has its own secret benefits. By stimulating your brain and constantly being found in the work, the work improves on its own. Shocking, right? Well, not really, psychologists like Robert B. Cialdini called this the Rule of Consistency. Cialdini and his team found that the more you do something, the less thought it takes to do and the more the skill grows. In other words, it becomes easier! This is a fact of life for anything really. What a sweet reward for all the hard work you put in. Even if it is just 100 words, the act of writing itself is the best way to improve your writing.
When you make your work a habit, you automatically begin building a foundation of professionalism in the craft. Professionalism is a friend to consistency. An artist’s job is to do, not talk about doing. This is what separates the amateurs and pros. This may be a no-brainer, however, when we put the 80% into context, being professional is really difficult for some people. This is a magical trait that can be found in very few writers (and workers), look for it and hold on tight.
Writer’s block
“But I have writer’s block,” some may say. “I don’t know what to write,” is a constant one I hear. It doesn’t necessarily matter. If you are a writer then you can begin by simply writing your own life down. Perhaps tell a short story with a beginning, middle and end, not worrying about how bad it is or how long, just write. Write down your opinions on a matter and why you think that way. Consider the flowers outside and write down what they make you think about.
Creating projects for yourself will give you inspiration for the bigger projects to come and help fight writer’s block. Be found in your work so you are ready when opportunities arise. Again, you may already have heard this, I’m not claiming to know it all because I fail at writing on a daily basis also. I would just like to encourage my fellow writers, however, to put your pens where your mouth is and challenge yourself to write at the very least, 100 words a day. Challenge yourself to something you haven’t done that brings your thoughts into words and your art. I invite you to learn with me on this weekly journey as I write about writing, storytelling, and literature. Hopefully teaching a few things along the way.

Share this:

Like this:

Chris Jericho does a good job in the introduction of the book to tell us what his idea for the book is: to encourage his readers to achieve their goals in life. Jericho says that the word “no” is more powerful than most profanities he’s heard in his life. One of the things I took away from the introduction was the idea that “No” can derail the most dedicated of people.

Think about it, how many times did you have a great idea and get passionate about something only to find out that the person who you’re pitching it to or potential clients turns you down and you give up? “No” is a very powerful word. This book is Jericho’s guide to power through “no”.

Jericho spends the rest of the book telling stories on how he accomplished things over his 20+ year career. Jericho told one story about the Styles Clash and how he tricked Vince McMahon on getting the styles clash on WWE Tv.

One of the things that one should be careful when reading this is that a lot of what Jericho talks about should be credited to his status and celebrity. He talks about how he got McMahon to move him later on the show so he could go and meet some celebrities and performances.

Jericho also talked about being able to get onto a plane flight that he didn’t have a ticket for mainly because the attendants knew who he was. That would never happen to a non-famous civilian.

The book is good. It’s nice to see a famous and successful person write out his keys to success. I do recommend it if you like to see what someone will give credit to their success.

Share this:

Like this:

FORMER FBI DIRECTOR JAMES COMEY TO PUBLISH WITH FLATIRON BOOKS
(August 2, 2017 – New York, NY) Bob Miller, President and Publisher of Flatiron Books, announced
today that the Macmillan division has acquired World English and German rights to the first book by
former Director of the FBI, James Comey. The highly-anticipated book, yet untitled, will be published in
Spring 2018 with Editorial Director Colin Dickerman editing; Matt Latimer and Keith Urbahn of Javelin
represented Comey in the deal.

Mr. Comey served as Director of the FBI from 2013 to 2017, appointed to the post by President Barack
Obama. He previously served as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and the United
States Deputy Attorney General in the administration of President George W. Bush. From prosecuting
the mafia and Martha Stewart to helping change Bush administration policies on torture and electronic
surveillance to overseeing the Hillary Clinton e-mail investigation as well as ties between the Trump
campaign and Russia, Comey has been involved in some of the most consequential cases and policies of
recent history.

In his forthcoming book, Comey will explore what good, ethical leadership looks like and how it drives
sound decisions. Using examples from some of the highest-stakes situations in the past two decades of
American government, Comey will share yet-unheard anecdotes from his long and distinguished career.
Of the acquisition, Bob Miller says: “Throughout his career, James Comey has had to face one difficult
decision after another as he has served the leaders of our country. His book promises to take us inside
those extraordinary moments in our history, showing us how these leaders have behaved under
pressure. By doing so, Director Comey will give us unprecedented entry into the corridors of power, and
a remarkable lesson in leadership itself.”

Share this:

Like this:

Chris Jericho has released a new book called No Is A Four Letter Word. You can find it here:

Three-time New York Times bestselling author and six-time WWE champion Chris Jericho shares 20 of his most valuable lessons for achieving your goals and living the life you want, jam-packed with fantastic stories and the classic off-the-wall, laugh-out-loud Jericho references he’s famous for, with a foreword by Paul Stanley.

Chris Jericho has known what he wanted out of life since he was a teenager: to be a pro wrestler and to be in a rock ‘n’ roll band. Most of his high school friends felt that he lacked the tools necessary to get into either, but Chris believed in himself. With the wise words of Master Yoda echoing through his head (“Do or do not. There is no try.”), he made it happen. As a result, Chris has spent a lifetime doing instead of merely trying, managing to achieve his dreams while learning dozens of invaluable lessons along the way.

No Is a Four-Letter Word distills more than two decades of showbiz wisdom and advice into twenty easy-to-carry chapters. From developing a strong work ethic thanks to WWE chairman Vince McMahon, remembering to always look like a star from Gene Simmons of KISS, learning to let it go when the America’s Funniest Home Videos hosting gig goes to his rival, adopting a sense of perpetual reinvention from the late David Bowie, making sure to sell himself like his NHL-legend father Ted Irvine taught him, or going the extra mile to meet Keith Richards (with an assist from Jimmy Fallon), Chris has learned countless lessons during his decades-long career. Now, in the hopes that those same principles might help and inspire his legions of fans, Chris has decided to share them while recounting the fantastic and hilarious stories that led to the birth of these rules. The result is a fun, entertaining, practical, and inspiring book from the man with many scarves but only one drive: to be the best. After reading No Is a Four-Letter Word, you’ll discover that you might have what it takes to succeed as well…you just need to get out there and do it. That’s what Jericho would do.

Share this:

Like this:

At MultiMediaMouth we like to be one step ahead of the game and this month we are happy to bring you an exclusive interview with Anna Smaill, author of The Chimes; a stunning novel which sits somewhere in between dystopian and literary fiction. The book won’t hit the shelves until February 12th (I told you, we like to be one step ahead!), but we confidently predict already that this novel will be a huge success Paola Rizzato was able to ask Anna a few questions…

Anna Smaill

Paola Rizzato: It will come as no surprise to readers of The Chimes to learn that you have a background in music, specifically as a violinist. When did you realise that the avenue you wanted to pursue was writing? Do you still play?

Anna Smaill: Growing up I always wrote as well as playing the violin. Music and writing felt quite interdependent for me, and they tended to feed into each other. There’s a kind of brilliant meditative pay-off to practicing a musical instrument – you’re concentrating very hard on something abstract (the musical idea, or phrase, or the piece as a whole) at the same time as focusing on the physical (ie the way you’re holding a bow, or standing, or what the note actually sounds like). The effects of this sort of concentration would spill into my writing – you start hearing the words in a different way, thinking about the way they combine. You have a broader sense of the tonal effects and rhythms. Or, that’s how it seems to me on reflection. It’s also a great model for writing – the idea that you need to actively practise your craft, hone the physical and mental connections you’re making. I think it’s quite easy to assume that writing comes from on high in one awesome swoop of inspiration.

Things started coming unstuck with the music-writing balance when I started a degree in performance music. I was incredibly idealistic about music as a form of expression and hadn’t faced the practical realities of music as a career. The degree was intense and demanding and I had some fundamental technical problems as a violinist. The upshot was that I quickly lost confidence in my musical ability. At that time I was writing more and more, and it was really my way of understanding what I was going through. Music felt unstable, but language mostly held steady. When I stopped playing the violin, it felt like a complete break, a divorce almost. I don’t think I picked up the instrument at all for at least a year. Since then, I’ve returned to it, but usually in fits and starts. So, it does feel like an absence in my life at the moment, something to be remedied. I really want to return to that balance between the two. I’ve been thinking about learning a completely different instrument, actually. Maybe the trombone.

PR: The Chimes is an incredibly imaginative novel, but which can seem a little challenging at times because of the use of music terminology and metaphors. Were you aware of this when you were writing the book and did you ever make a decision to sacrifice accessibility in the name of style?

AS: To tell the truth, I was blissfully unaware of this while writing. Probably due to my own early immersion in music, I tend to assume that certain musical terms and concepts are more universal than they really are. I am also a fan of challenging books, books that make the reader work a bit, so that probably shaped what I was doing. But, I do think of the novel as a consummately social form – its history and its mechanics and conventions, they don’t exist in a vacuum, they’re shaped by audience. So, I think when it came to the plot and the rhythms of the book, I was always aware of an audience over my shoulder – it has to be plausible and parsable for a reader. It has to stand up by itself. I hope that this will encourage the reader to trust the book, and give them the confidence to push past any of the immediate resistance in the language.

A.S: And the customary response: ‘too many to count’! I think the reading I did as a kid, and the books my parents read me, are a massive ongoing influence. I loved Rosemary Sutcliff in particular – the rhythms in her work are so weighty and simple and beautiful, and she has this amazing sense of the loneliness and intensity of being young. We got Roald Dahl, CS Lewis, Katherine Paterson, Tolkien, all out loud – very lucky, as I think the stories enter your head in a different way when you listen like that. I stumbled on Tolstoy, Woolf, and George Eliot at a fairly early age, via my parents’ bookshelf, and that was world-changing. The New Zealand novelist Janet Frame made a massive impact on me, and in general I’m awed and swayed by Michael Ondaatje, Marilynne Robinson, Russell Hoban, Patrick Ness, Haruki Murakami, John Crowley, David Foster Wallace…the list goes on.

PR: Dystopian settings are en vogue at the moment, especially among YA novels, but although The Chimes is set in a dystopian London it doesn’t quite feel as though it belongs to the same genre. Why do you think dystopian settings are so popular is so popular with both readers and writers?

A.S: That’s a good question, and I think there are a lot of different answers. I think it probably appeals to the curiosity we have about being pushed to the limits. I think we are hungry to be tested. Particularly those of us who are living in ostensibly comfortable first-world environments, where we’re often cut off from neighbours and families, and from the natural world. There’s that old chestnut that suicide rates in London dropped during the second world war, and it makes a specific kind of sense. Human disasters push us to big decisions – what is most important to me? what will I protect? – and they push us into communities. I think there’s a nostalgia there – we probably miss that kind of immediacy, that sense of competence and human connection. There’s also the sense that every dystopia is simply a utopia waiting to happen – raze the world and you can start again from scratch, do it right. For YA readers, dystopias present a world in which teenagers can fight, overcome, wrest power, create a place for their own ideals, and that’s immensely seductive and powerful. But, I’m also really interested in what I think of as metaphysical dystopias. José Saramago’s Blindness, for example, or much of Kafka, Ballard, Janet Frame – they stage apocalypses which seem to be reflections of internal, personal or social breakdowns, ruptures that are somehow built into human existence, or can be stumbled across at any time. I think they’re all the more disturbing for that.

PR: And now, the inevitable ‘what will you be writing next’ question!

AS: I’m in the first stages of writing a book that is set in Tokyo, where I lived for two years before heading to London. It’s hard to tell at this point, but it seems likely to be rather sprawly and rather supernatural. However, it’s still very early in the game, so all bets are off.

Share this:

Like this:

In our third article in the series, MultiMediaMouth speaks to Anthony McGowan – widely acclaimed and prolific author of YA novels ‘The Knife That Killed Me’ and ‘Hello Darkness’ – among several others. Anthony was also a guest at the recent London Young Adult Literature Convention (YALC), speaking on one of the panel events on: ‘Crossover: not just for kids’.As I couldn’t make it to YALC on both days, I was thrilled to be able to ask the author some direct questions on the growing phenomenon of YA.

In recent years, Young Adult fiction has grown immensely – with new titles being released pretty much constantly to an apparently insatiable audience. Did you spot this trend when you moved from regular fiction to children and then YA fiction? Was your decision to write for children/YA a conscious move to offer a product for which there was a bigger demand?

It was a little more complicated that that. The first creative fiction I wrote – back in the mid 1990s – was the text that eventually became Hellbent (the original drafts were all entitled Abandon Hope). I’d heard of a growing category of fiction called ‘Young Adult’, but assumed it meant people like me (as I was) – in their twenties). So, Hellbent was a raucous, rude, quite intellectually demanding book, not at all intended for teens, or at least not for the 12-14 year olds that now form the core of Y/A readers. It didn’t get a book deal, in fact never even came close. But it did get me an agent, who suggested I write something more sensible. I then wrote an adult thriller, Stag Hunt, which got published quite quickly. While that was happening, I had a rethink about Hellbent, and decided, as the main character was a teenager, to recast it as a more obviously teenage book, by taking out some of the filth. It got snapped up, and did a little better than Stag Hunt. I therefore found myself by default as a teenage writer. It was never a commercial decision on my part – in fact I’d certainly have earned more money if I’d stayed in the world of adult fiction. But the truth is I found it very easy to re-enter the teenage world, and it struck me vividly that teenage life is full of exactly the sorts of passion, violence, intensity, love and hate that are the very stuff of fiction.

Series like ‘Hunger Games’ and ‘Divergent’ have seized a considerable share of the adult reading market too. What do you think makes YA fiction so appealing to adult readers?

I’ve got into hot water before for suggesting that adults should wean themselves off escapist Y/A, fantasy/dystopian books. I think it’s great for teenagers to read widely – including fantasy, as well as more realistic Y/A, and anything else that grabs their interest, and makes them want to lose themselves in a book. But I think that adults should move on. There’s enough great adult speculative fiction, as well as more traditional literary fiction, to last the most avid reader a lifetime. I think adults read it (teen fantasy) because it’s entertaining, undemanding, and provides what they want in easily digested packets. And many of the adult readers are infantalised, and see themselves as teenagers. Of course people should read what they want, and none of this stuff does any actual harm, but it’s like spending your life eating nothing but Frosties. (Which isn’t to say that there aren’t several Y/A writers who can be read by anyone of any age – Mal Peet, Patrick Ness – all the usual suspects.)

In the wake of the success of series such as the Hunger Games, Divergent, The Maize Runner, the inevitable stream of copycats has followed. Do you think these blockbuster titles help YA literature through the exposure they provide to the category/genre, or are they possibly creating a bandwagon for less talented writers to jump on?

If I’m being brutally honest, I don’t think that the copycat authors are any less talented than the ‘originals’ – they’re all pretty terrible. I read the first fifty pages of Michael Grant’s Gone the other day and thought it was laughably awful. In a cultural movement like this, you tend to get a breakthrough book that changes the landscape, and then the next wave consists of books that already existed, having been born of the same forces as the first, and were waiting, in a sense, for that opening. And they all do quite well. You then get a third surge (the first true copycats), and they also often do respectable business, albeit it at a lower level. And then you get the ragged fourth wave. I think we’re in that now with Y/A fantasy. But as prose writers they’re not necessarily any worse than the first wave/breakthrough books. Well, OK, sometimes they are. But as I said earlier, it’s not like any of these people are Shakespeare.

From anecdotal evidence and just plain observation, I get the impression that most young readers favour the paper book format over the ebook (possibly because they don’t have debit cards to buy online or have to use their parents’ account). What’s the feedback you get from your readers, and could YA fiction be the saviour of the mainstream paper book?

This is such a complex and difficult question, and the truth is that no one has the faintest idea what’s going to happen, whether in relation to adult or Y/A fiction. E-readers are still a relatively serious investment, for young people, at least. There was talk a while back of Amazon essentially giving Kindles away. If they start selling for, say £20, then that might well shift things around. But for now, yes, it definitely seems that older readers are the ones most likely to be reading e-books. Of course there are interesting questions around piracy – you can get almost any bestseller for free, if you’ve a mind. I actually think that publishers should shun e-books. It’s the work of a second to strip the DRM out of an ebook issued by a publisher, but it’s a hell of a job to scan a book, then OCR it and check it for errors. Who’s going to do that for nothing? No, if publishers do really care about piracy, then the only answer is luddism.

Your books tend to appeal to the younger male reader; however, on the day I attended YALC I think it’s fair to say that a good 3/4 of the attendees were female. Why are teenage boys so reluctant to read?

I haven’t got any magical insights into that. There are some boys who are insanely manic readers, so there clearly isn’t a reading gene that girls have and boys lack. I prefer to see getting boys to read as presenting a series of interesting challenges. I try to grab their interest with humour, violence or extreme emotion, but then, once I’ve got them, to stretch them intellectually to breaking point. I try to perplex, enrage, astound, amuse, disgust, enlighten and exhaust them. (I should probably say that although my books are quite ‘male’, my perception is that most of my readers are female – a simple function, I suppose – of the fact that girls read more than boys.)

Finally, what’s the main difference between writing for an adult reader and writing for a younger audience, both in terms of your creative process and connecting and interacting with your readers?

The main difference, for me, is simply the age of the protagonist. I’ve written for younger, pre-teen readers, and there I’m remembering what I was like at that age, and what made me laugh or otherwise engaged me – so it’s a sort of archeological process, digging back to find the lost treasure. But if you’re writing for 8 year olds, the truth is you have to think about your vocabulary, and, to an extent, the nature of the material. When writing for teenagers, in terms of language and intellectual complexity, I essentially go full throttle, just as I would when writing for adults. But I suppose I’d be inclined to think more about pace when writing for teens, being wary of passages in which nothing much happens. But for all that broadly similar rules apply to all writing. I try to apply something similar to the William Morris dictum that you shouldn’t have anything in your house that isn’t either beautiful or useful – so every sentence has to pay its way. Is it funny? Is it clever? Is it wise? Is it interestingly vile? Does it tell you more about a character? Does it move the story on?

Share this:

Like this:

In this first in a series of articles on Young Adult fiction, I interview YA fiction writer Anthony Ergo, whose debut novel, Dystopia, debuted at the Young Adult Literature Convention (YALC) in London last month. You can read my review of the novel here.

Dystopia is your first YA book but I recall that you mentioned you have also written children’s books. What made you move on to YA?

Well, I had the idea for a paranormal story (which became Dystopia) and after the first draft I felt that it wasn’t going to be appropriate for younger readers. For a start, some of the horror scenes are fairly intense! Also, I was interested in exploring themes which were more suited to the YA genre. My book has some complex and intertwining relationships between the main characters and YA allows for room to delve into these areas. Lastly, I’ve read a lot of YA and always wanted to venture into writing for teens and young adults at some point. For me, it wasn’t a case of writing a YA novel specifically, but rather writing a story which ended up becoming a YA novel.

Over the last couple of years, YA fiction has become immensely popular, not only with its target audience but also with adult readers. It’s a trend that seems to have started years ago with books like Harry Potter, which were technically children’s books, progressing to what we now define as YA. Why do you think is YA so popular with adult readers?

Anthony Ergo at YALC

For me, YA novels seem to capture a sense of adventure and excitement that books written for adults don’t always seem to. A lot of YA is also written in the first person present tense, which I find particularly appealing in how it pulls you directly into the character’s experiences and emotions. I suppose for older readers of YA it’s an opportunity to become a teen again and revisit experiences such as discovering identity, experiencing first love, etc. There’s something about a teen protagonist, and how they handle the curve balls of life, that makes them all the more fascinating.

Although your novel is called Dystopia, it’s not strictly a classically dystopian novel, but rather a mystery/paranormal thriller set in a dystopian background. It’s a title which will undoubtedly get a reader’s attention. Why do you think the dystopian genre is so popular among young readers? (This was discussed in one of the panels at YALC but you were busy signing books and I was right at the back and couldn’t hear anything!)

My book is a modern day dystopian novel, unlike many others which are set in futuristic/post-apocalyptic societies. I wanted to take a different approach on the dystopian genre; I’ve depicted a broken society but it’s one where the vast majority of the population are not aware of the underlying paranormal threat. A recent reviewer described it as “The Matrix with ghosts”, which I quite liked! I’ve heard a lot of theories on why dystopia is so popular and I have to say I don’t buy into a lot of the psycho-analysis. A dystopian novel allows for escapism and creates an environment where the protagonists are in extreme and relentless danger; this is the appeal for me.

Tell us about the genesis of Dystopia: how did the idea come about? And did you decide that it would be part of a series right from the outset?

The idea started with an idea I had for my main character, Sasha Hunter. She has an extreme form of “triskaidekaphobia” (fear of the number thirteen) and believes that she’s cursed with bad luck. I had a lot of fun with her crippling superstitions and how they affect her choices. I’m also a big fan of the paranormal and horror genres – my English dissertation was on the classic gothic horror novels such as Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Once I started to develop the strange environment that Sasha finds herself in, I knew very quickly that I’d need more than one book to portray her journey.

Several reviewers commented on how ‘real’ Sasha, the book’s protagonist, is compared to other YA heroines (I’m looking at you, Katniss Everdeen). Sasha doesn’t see herself as particularly attractive, she suffers from asthma and really seems like a regular girl. I think a lot of female readers will appreciate that. How does a male author manage to create such a convincing female teenage character? Did you draw inspiration from a sibling, a cousin, or anyone else you’ve met in real life?

I’m so glad that people have connected with Sasha in that way. She is indeed vulnerable, afraid, flawed and at times weak, and all of these things hinder her progress. After reading a lot of books where the main character is depicted as strong, fearless, beautiful, etc. I really wanted to devise a character who is just a normal teen thrown into extremely abnormal surroundings. I had hoped that being a male writer would give Sasha a different feel to other lead female characters, and I’m overjoyed that people find her to be so real. I can’t really put a finger on how I achieved this, but I’m fortunate to have the help of my excellent female Editor Kathy Graham (who was particularly useful in guiding me through the romance scenes!)

What inspired you to become a writer? Who are your influences?

My inspiration would have to be my English Teacher from high school. He had an infectious passion and encouraged my reading and writing from an early age. I am also inspired by this incredible generation of young readers, many of whom I was lucky to meet at my book launch at the Young Adult Literature Convention in London. It’s great to be able to get direct feedback from readers via social media and review sites and it definitely inspired me to power through the first draft of the follow-up, Hysteria, in just six weeks.

At YALC, readers were able to purchase the book as part of a special ‘package’ which included a wristband, a signed bookmark and a CD by your band, “Signed in Crimson” with a ‘soundtrack’ to Dystopia. I thought that was a very interesting approach which made your book stand out. Do you think this kind of marketing is going to be the way forward for a writer to attract readers in an increasingly crowded market?

I’m in a lucky position to be able to create both music and literature, which are my two passions. I was working on the demo CD with my band (Signed In Crimson) at the same time as I was writing Dystopia, so the two went hand in hand. I wanted to try and create a special package for the book launch and that was when I had the idea to include the CD as a soundtrack. I was listening to the songs a lot during the creative process of my book and some of the lyrics and themes transferred over.

Finally, when can we expect Hysteria – the next instalment in the series?

The good news is that I have just finished the first draft of Hysteria. I’m incredibly excited to release the follow-up, which has allowed me to explore a new environment and a whole host of new characters. My Editor feels that it’s a huge leap forward from Dystopia so I can’t wait to share it with everyone. I’m planning to release it in October this year, with the third book, Porphyria, planned for early 2015.

Support Us by Shopping Amazon!

Ad

About Us

Formerly HeadlinesTonight.com, MultiMediaMouth.com was created in 2009 by Chris Nelson. In 2016, Chris Nelson sold MultiMediaMouth.com to Ruben Jay. We now cover entertainment from all angles. Make sure to follow us for all forms of amazing content.